Our Culture Safaris offer you a close up view of East Africa’s amazing diversity of wildlife — plus the opportunity to meet and interact with the indigenous people who have inhabited the land for eons. Made possible by Zohar’s close relationships with the region’s tribal leaders, these authentic encounters enable you to experience and participate in every-day tribal activities, and learn about the people’s religious beliefs and the problems effecting their survival of their way of life. Your itinerary can also include visits to archaeological sites, moderate to more challenging outdoor activities, and time to relax and soak up the area’s spectacular beauty.

Visit to Olduvai Gorge: Africa is the cradle of humanity. And you may opt for a visit Olduvai Gorge, the famed Olduvai Gorgearcheological site in the Serengeti Plain where Mary and Louis Leakey discovered the earliest evidence of tool-making by humans and the oldest complete human skeleton in the 1950’s. This was a major archaeological breakthrough that expanded our understanding of human origins to over 1.8 million years ago.

Visit to Ngorongoro Crater: Formed 3 million years ago, the Crater is the world’s largest volcano caldera — a volcano in which water has leached through the soil and rocks below the volcanic cone causing it to drop to the bottom of the former mountain. Considered one of the “Seven Natural Wonders of the World”, the Crater is one of Africa’s most remarkable geological sites. The Ngorongoro Crater’s ecosystem maintains the historic balance between man and nature in a way that is not possible in other national parks.

Exhilarating Physical Activities: Your itinerary can also include physical activities such as a “walking safari”, hiking, and climbing into ancient volcanic craters for breathtaking views of East Africa’s pristine natural beauty.

DAY 1: Arrival – Kilimanjaro International Airport – Arusha City)

Upon arrival at Kilimanjaro International Airport (JRO), our representative will meet you and transfer you to your hotel for an overnight stay. Your professional safari guide will brief you during dinner on various aspects of your itinerary.

After breakfast depart to Ilikiding’a for a full day cultural visit. Ilikiding’a is a Maasai village located 30 minutes away from Arusha city center where there is much to see and do. Activities include hiking to nearby waterfalls, a walking safari through the coffee plantation and visiting the Maasai bomas (dwellings). You will have a chance to taste African dishes for your lunch. Afterwards, we drive to the lodge for evening leisure and hot dinner.

In the evening, you will receive a 1-hour lecture-discussion about Maasai Tribe from Zohar’s Local Cultures’ CoordinatorMr. Ole’ Sululu (Maasai elder). This discussion will answer all the questions you many have about the Maasai people.

You will depart early to Lake Manyara National Park for biking excursion in Mto Wa Mbu village followed by a hot local lunch. After lunch, we will proceed to Manyara NP for a game drive. The park is green throughout the year because of its underground water sources. Its verdant color attracts hundreds of spectacular varieties of migratory and wetland birds flying overhead. It also attracts huge populations of flamingos because its shallow alkaline-saline (salt) soda lake creates an ideal environment for microorganisms to grow that flamingos’ feed upon. Manyara’s natural habitat also includes large troops of baboons, velvet monkeys, blue monkeys, and tree climbing lions, hippos, giraffes, zebras, buffalos, warthogs, impalas, Thomson-gazelles, and Grant gazelles. Leopards, cheetahs, rock/tree hyrax, kudus, elands, bushbucks, waterbucks, and dik-diks also live in this park.

If you are not interested in biking, you can choose one of the activities below;

• Forest Hike (2.5 to 3hrs)

• Nature Walk (1hr to 1.5hrs)

• Village Walk (2.5 to 3hrs)

• Lake Manyara Canoeing (weather permitting (2.5 to 3hrs)

Late in the evening drive further to Karatu for evening leisure and hot dinner.

Classic: Karatu Country Lodge/ Ngorongoro Farm House (3 Meals)

Deluxe: Ngorongoro Exploreans Lodge/Gibbs Farm (3 Meals)

DAY 4: Karatu – Lake Eyasi

Depart for a cultural visit with the Hadzabe Bushmen, one of the most remote and last hunter-gatherer tribes on earth. We participate in various interactive daily activities with the Hadzabe, including bush trek, hunting, honey gathering, baobab fruit foraging, tribal chanting, dancing and sitting around their daily campfires. Time spent with the Hadzabe Bushmen, as with other cultural groups visited, is not choreographed in a specific way. We just join in whatever they are doing during their day. Things need to stay flexible because, if game is near, the Hadzabe dash off into the bush for it and we join them. In the late afternoon, we join the Datoga tribe, another well preserved traditional tribe in the Lake Eyasi area, and participate in whatever they are doing, such as making yogurt in a calabash, milking cows, making butter and joining their traditional dances. They also have a blacksmith who designs metal objects.

Later in the evening, drive to the lodge for dinner and overnight.

Classic: Lake Eyasi Safari Lodge (3 Meals)

Deluxe: KisimaNgeda (3 Meals)

DAY 5: Lake Eyasi – Olduvai Gorge – Serengeti National Park

After breakfast, you depart to the Serengeti plains by way of the lush Ngorongoro Crater Highlands where fertile soils grow crops such as wheat, corn and coffee. En route to the Serengeti, you will visit Olduvai Gorge where the famous archaeologists Louis and Mary Leakey discovered evidence of the oldest prehistoric human civilization and a human skull dating back 1.8 million years ago. There is also a small museum that documents their work. If you would prefer not visiting Olduvai Gorge, your game drive will be extended in the Serengeti Plain.

Afterwards, you will proceed further into to the Serengeti. The name “Serengeti” comes from the Maasai word siringitu, meaning “endless plains”. You will see why once you see its ocean of grassland savannas stretching to the horizon as far as your eye can see. The Serengeti ecosystem is one of the oldest and most well preserved on earth. The essential features of climate, vegetation, fauna and flora have barely changed over the past million years. The patterns of life, death, adaptation and migration are as old as the hills themselves.

Classic: Kati Kati Tented Camp (3Meals)

Deluxe: Serengeti Serena Lodge/LemalaEwanjani Camp (3Meals)

DAY 6: Serengeti NP

Before breakfast, we depart for an early morning game drive and return later to the lodge for hot breakfast. After enjoying the leisurely morning, we depart with picnic lunch for a full day game drive.

The Serengeti plains are only interrupted by the Kopjes, bizarre rock formations formed by the weathering of granite outcrops. This is often where leopards and the other big cats can be found. This is where you will most likely have the opportunity to view these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat. We arrive at the camp for evening leisure and hot dinner.

Before breakfast, depart for a 1 – 2 hour walking safari in Serengeti. After breakfast, depart with a picnic lunch for the final game drive in Serengeti NP. After lunch, we will drive in the direction of the Ngorongoro Crater. As soon as you have reached the edge of the crater rim, the crater appears half a mile below you inviting you to gaze at this jaw dropping natural wonder. When you reach its edge and view its 100 square mile expanse, it is a sight to behold.

Ngorongoro Crater is the world’s largest volcano caldera formed 3 million years ago and is considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the world and one of Africa’s most remarkable geological sites. A caldera is a volcano in which water has leached through the soil and rocks below the volcanic cone causing it to drop to the bottom of the former mountain.We will be getting out of the safari jeep to enjoy the view while walking along the crater rim for an hour. Afterwards, you will proceed to Karatu for evening leisure and hot dinner.

After breakfast, we depart to Olmoti Crater for a hiking adventure. Olmoti Crater is located at the northern part of Ngorongoro crater Tanzania at the altitude of 3,088 meters above sea level close to Nainokanoka village. It is a small pristine caldera of Ngorongoro Highlands with different water springs combining to form Munge River. A visit to Olmoti is only possible by foot with the escort of an armed ranger. It takes about 35 minutes to walk to the rim of this shallow crater. Many different species of antelope, land reedbuck buffalo bushbuck along with Maasai livestock can be found here. A walk to the waterfalls of the Munge River is quite interesting. You can also opt to hike Empakaai Crater instead.

After lunch, you will proceed to Nainokanoka village for a Maasai cultural experience. Nainokanoka is a Maasai village located near the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater in the Ngorongoro Highlands. A surreal visual feature you will see from Nainokanoka village is a view of the Ngorongoro crater rim from its eastern side where the moist warm air from the Indian Ocean meets the warm dry air of the Serengeti, creating a fascinating cloud formation that curls into the western side of the crater’s rim.

The cultural highlight in Ngorongoro Highlands is visiting a 4 generation Maasai family boma (Maasai homestead) its leader, his 7 wives, 50 children and manyatas (igloo like homes). As this bomais a bit off the beaten track, it is not frequented by outsiders, creating a great opportunity to meet a Maasai family that is as excited to meet you as you are to meet them. You can also walk through the Empakaai green highlands just for fresh air while observing hundreds and hundreds cattle of the Maasai grazing.

Classic: Ngorongoro Farm House/Karatu Country Lodge (3 Meals)

Deluxe: Ngorongoro Serena Lodge/Ngorongoro Crater Lodge (3 Meals)

DAY 9: Ngorongoro Crater – Kilimanjaro International Airport

After breakfast, we drive to the Ngorongoro Crater and descend into it for a full day of game viewing. Ngorongoro Crater was formed over 3 million years ago. It is inhabited by a unique ecosystem inhabited by more than 25,000 animals. In the grass steppes and acacia forest you will find almost every type of animal from the East African savanna. This includes the Big Five (rhino, elephant, Cape buffalo, lion, leopard) and most of the animal species found in the Serengeti, including zebra, hippos, wildebeest, and cheetahs, can be viewed close up.

The Ngorongoro Crater ecosystem maintains the historic balance between people and nature in a way that is not possible in other parks.

Later in the day we will drive you to Kilimanjaro International Airport for your flight to the next destination or back home.

Listed below are hotels/lodges/resorts that the safari tour operator can accomodate for you.